Iraqi Security Forces Targeted
Iraqis seeking jobs with security forces were targeted once again when a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body mingled among hundreds of men and blew himself up in one of four attacks that killed 26 people.
Thursday's attacks are part of a surge of violence that has killed more than 200 since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government last week with seven positions still undecided.
A similar attack Wednesday by a suicide bomber standing in a line outside a police recruitment center in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil killed 60 and wounded 150.
The attacks are part of an escalation of violence aimed at destabilizing Iraq's new democratic government, which held its first Cabinet meeting Thursday. The insurgents often target Iraqi security forces, which are being recruited and trained by the U.S.-led coalition as part of its eventual exit strategy.
In Thursday's worst violence, a man with explosives strapped to his body set them off while standing in a long line of job applicants outside an army recruitment office in central Baghdad, police said. At least 13 people were killed and 20 wounded, said army Lt. Salam Wahab who works at the center.
Insurgents typically have attacked such centers with car bombs, and many are protected by high blast walls. But witnesses said this attacker walked past a high wall topped with barbed wire to the entrance and detonated his explosives.
"While we were standing in line, a man walked past, right up to the heavily guarded entrance gate, as if he wanted to ask the guards a question," said Anwar Wasfi, who was near the end of the line.
"Suddenly, an explosion occurred, and I was knocked over," Wasfi said at Yarmouk Hospital, where he was treated for leg and arm wounds.
The attack was half a mile from the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government, embassies and U.S. forces.
In other recent developments:
The latest violence has left the government grappling with how to deal with an insurgency seemingly bent on escalating attacks.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari had hoped to draw support away from the insurgency by including in his Cabinet members of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, which dominated under Saddam. But members of his Shiite-dominated alliance have blocked candidates with links to Saddam's regime, which brutally repressed Shiites and Kurds.
Al-Jaafari's' 37-member Cabinet, most of whom were sworn in Tuesday, includes just four Sunni ministers in relatively minor posts. Months after the Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, bickering continued over two deputy prime minister slots and five portfolios that are in temporary hands, including defense.
Al-Jaafari's aide Laith Kuba said Thursday the seven vacancies would be filled by Saturday and put before parliament for a vote the next day. President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents must approve the names before they go to the 275-member National Assembly.
Earlier Thursday, lawmakers from al-Jaafari's United Iraqi Alliance said there was agreement on who would fill the key oil and electricity slots, which are destined for Shiites.
Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, the first oil minister in the former U.S.-appointed Governing Council, will return to the position, said Ali al-Dabagh, a Shiite lawmaker involved in the negotiations.
Former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite deputy prime minister in the new government, has been filling in as oil minister. His office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mihsin Shlash, an independent Shiite lawmaker, will be electricity minister, al-Dabagh and two other lawmakers said.
In other violence on Thursday, insurgents attacked two police patrols, In western Baghdad, killing a total of nine officers.
In the first attack, gunmen fired on a patrol in the Amil area, killing eight policemen and wounding two, said police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim. About 15 minutes later, a suicide car bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in nearby Ghazaliyah, killing one officer and wounding six, according to Karim and a U.S. military spokesman, Sgt. 1st Class Danette Rodesky-Flores.
Another suicide car bomber hit a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad's southern Doura neighborhood, destroying a large truck but causing no American casualties, Rodesky-Flores said.
Skid marks suggested the attacker raced onto the highway from a side road, exploding his vehicle near the front of the truck and setting it on fire.
In another part of Doura on Wednesday night, a suicide car bomber attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint, killing at least nine soldiers and wounding 16, including 10 civilians, police said.